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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Conference on economic initiative and local development in Nis

Nis, 6 March 2006

Serbian Assistant Minister of Economy for the SMEs sector Petar Pavlovic said in Nis today that the task of central and local authorities is to remove obstacles and simplify procedures for development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the opening speech at the conference devoted to economic initiative and sustainable local development, Pavlovic recalled that in 2005 the Serbian Development Fund granted €12 million for start-ups.

In the same year, nearly €50 million were earmarked for the development of SMEs, while the number of applications for grants far exceeded the financial possibilities of the fund, added Popovic.

Popovic recalled that the Agency for Development of SMEs and Entrepreneurship for central and southern Serbia was founded in 2001 and has been working ever since.

The conference in Nis was organised by the Local Democracy Agencies, under the auspices of the Association of the Local Democracy Agencies, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the city of Nis.

The Association of the Local Democracy Agencies was founded in 1999 with the aim of bringing together and managing the network of Local Democracy Agencies (LDAs) in the Western Balkans which have existed since 1993. The agencies were established by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CLRAE) with the view to contributing to local development in southeast Europe.